Our View: Life in prison still costs a life

The strongest legal argument against capital punishment rests in that "shadow of a doubt," which loomed so large in Illinois that the state banned the practice in 2011.

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southcoasttoday.com

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Posted May. 4, 2014 at 12:01 AM

Posted May. 4, 2014 at 12:01 AM

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The strongest legal argument against capital punishment rests in that "shadow of a doubt," which loomed so large in Illinois that the state banned the practice in 2011.

Illinois' example should be followed across the country, because American justice is so frequently applied unevenly.

And if justice weren't also applied so inefficiently, the argument — a paltry one in the discussion of life, death and justice — that it's expensive, and therefore a burden on society to incarcerate rather than execute a killer, becomes moot.

The strongest moral arguments for or against the death penalty are subjective, depending on the choice and interpretation of whatever source one chooses for a moral code.

Any moral code that values liberty and virtue, even those that exclude an afterlife or divine retribution, would admit that crimes committed in this life warrant punishment in this life.

In Oklahoma last week, a convicted killer died even though officials tried to halt his execution. Their procedure went wrong, and he died of a heart attack a little less than an hour after the cocktail of drugs was improperly administered. His guilt was not disputed.

How could any jury or court compare his 40 or so minutes of unconscious writhing to that of his victim, the recent high school graduate Stephanie Neiman, who was sexually assaulted, shot and buried alive?

He should be incarcerated today. Alive and incarcerated. The price of a life in jail is still one life.